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Poster in Osawatomie Kansas

E.J. Dionne, a columnist for the Washington Post, has written an excellent article in TheNationalMemo, based on Obama’s speech earlier this week in Osawatomie, Kansas, the site of Theodore Roosevelt’s legendary “New Nationalism” speech 101 years ago. It was in that speech on August 31, 1910 that Roosevelt laid out a plan for the Federal government to initiate radical changes in the services they offered to all citizens, including national healthcare service, social insurance, limited injunctions in strikes, a minimum wage law for women, an eight hour work day, farm relief, injured workers compensation, the introduction of a Federal income tax, women’s suffrage, an inheritance tax and the direct election of Senators. What Roosevelt was really about in that speech was his opposition to the control that big business had in politics, government and unfair labor practices.

Though maybe a bit shy of Roosevelt’s sweeping, revolutionary hopes for a more expansive role of government, I found Obama’s speech highly significant and, as Dionne points out, it “was the Inaugural address Obama never gave”;  its obvious link to Teddy Roosevelt’s speech on progressivism gave Obama a platform to launch his 2012 campaign and, during that speech, he denounced neoliberalism without using that word, but nevertheless cited the failure of the economics of the neoliberal system, including terms like the “free market” economy and “supply-side” economics both still rigidly doctrinaire for Republicans.  The success of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement had a lot to do with shaping Obama’s speech. He finally looked comfortable moving to the left and, at least in his speech content, he effectively  converted to a more progressive shift in his campaign strategy.

With the disintegration of the Republican Party leadership,  and the success of the OWS movement, Obama had little choice but to move towards a more progressive campaign image. He can no longer attempt to triangulate between the Republicans and Democrats–he tried that for nearly three years and what did it get him–he further angered his own base and got zero Republican support. Now he needs to hammer the points he raised in his speech again and again using redundancy as one of the new weapons in the toolbox. In Minnesota, where the Republicans took both the state Senate and the House in 2010 and came within a whisker of winning the governorship, the Chair of the state Republican Party just stepped down, leaving the party in disarray, with as much as $ 2 million  in debt, while they are having a very difficult time raising money–all in less than a year after steamrolling into political power. The rise and fall of Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann probably had a lot do with the party’s downward projection. Her story has been a meteoric rise and fall and her projection into the future seems to have an unlimited bottom; for now it seems her fortunes have been mirrored by those of the state Republican Party. The state of Minnesota is also feeling the remnants of the disastrous leadership of Tim Pawlenty.

With the rise of Newt Gingrich as at least a temporary star in the Republican Presidential nomination process, he will unavoidably defend Neoliberalism (Reaganism) and hopefully that will lead to the national discussion we never had on the subject. Perhaps in the long run, we can rename Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington back to just plain National Airport. I will personally feel a lot safer flying into Washington with a return to the previous name. But, naturally, you are all asking why Roosevelt give a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas?  I looked into that. From the Kansas Historical Society:

• “ON AUGUST 31, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt delivered what was perhaps the most important speech ever given in Kansas. Surrounded by 30,000 enthusiastic listeners at Osawatomie, he developed a political creed which became a milestone along the road to the modern all-powerful state. This speech, later called the “New Nationalism Address,” evoked a wide variety of responses. It was labeled “Communistic,” “Socialistic,” and “Anarchistic” in various quarters; while others hailed it “the greatest oration ever given on American soil.” What then were the circumstances surrounding the address? What was the Kansas role in the drama at Osawatomie? Why was that town chosen for such an auspicious moment in history? And why did an ex-President devise a comprehensive political program such as the “New Nationalism?“”

You might ask why Osawatomie, Kansas for Roosevelt’s speech–that is also addressed in the same article from the Kansas Historical Society and hinted at with the speech poster image–he was commemorating a park dedicated to the anti-slavery actions of John Brown.

• “The ostensible occasion for the speech was the two-day dedicatory ceremonies at the John Brown Memorial Park. The park, located at the southwestern edge of Osawatomie in the vicinity of a well-remembered skirmish between Proslavery forces and the men led by Brown during the “Battle of Osawatomie,” was a gift to the state from the G.A.R.’s feminine auxiliary, the Women’s Relief Corps. It was the brain child of Anna Heacock, Cora Deputy, and the property’s former owner, Maj. John B. Remington. Remington, allegedly John Brown’s nephew by marriage, had induced Deputy and Heacock to buy the land for their organization and then donate the 22-1/2 acres to the state for the memorial. Not all the ladies supported the proposal as zealously as Commanders Heacock and Deputy. For example, Minnie D. Morgan objected to the way money was subscribed by the corps’ leadership without formal approval from the W.R.C. She also argued against the project since the place had “never been owned by John Brown. He never lived on it. The John Brown cabin…[was] not there, and …while Brown and his men fired upon the gang of pro-slavery men from…[the] locality, no Free State men were injured and no blood was spilled” there. [1] But, these details did not deter Heacock. Long before the $1,800 was raised to purchase the site, she, with the help of Gov. Walter Roscoe Stubbs, had secured formal acceptance of the area from the legislature. [2]“

I found Obama’s speech in Osawatomie was especially strong when he criticized the “supply-side” economic idea that Reagan introduced, from which we have never recovered   [referring to the supply-side argument] they said “if we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger. But here’s the problem. It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ’50s and ’60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.” When was the last time you heard a Democratic Presidential candidate denounce supply-side economics with such a strong voice? Hubert Humphrey (who came before Reagan of course) would have done something like that, but that was a very different time and place. Obama has denounced one of the pillars of Republicanism–one of their Holy Grail issues and it will be interesting to see if the press picks up on this and whether it becomes an issue in the next Republican debate.

The best thing Obama can do for his own Presidential candidacy is help the Occupy movement grow and borrow from its well-known lines. It would help immensely if he had the courage to denounce the police brutality that has existed in several OWS encampments and also denounce the use of weapons grade pepper spray because it was never developed for application against non-violent First Amendment rights demonstrators. But you don’t have to blame the one percent as sinful practitioners of an evil system–they are operating with a system that got started decades before they arrived. As we went from manufacturing to a financialized country in the 1990s, we allowed the creation of a system that works against our own interests and continues to put our economy at risk of another meltdown. Obama will also benefit from getting more involved in bringing the banking system to account for not renegotiating mortgages instead of foreclosing and making people homeless. He should have taken over the banks when he was elected, but with that opportunity seemingly gone, he needs to revisit the problem and face it for what it is–a major drag on our economic development. As I have said before, I never met a homeless person until Ronald Reagan became President. And I have characterized the Reagan Presidency as the worst in our history because of the more successful system (New Deal) he began to destroy in the stealth manner known to all Republican politicians. We have an immense amount of repair work to do to our economy and our social fabric, but Obama now has some wind at his back and if he continues with this more liberal strategy, his sails will be full and he can move more progressively to the left, reminiscent of what FDR did when he accepted his party’s nomination for a second term, as described in E.J. Dionne’s article.

Of course, we all know what happened to Teddy Roosevelt. Out of office as President, where he served from 1901 to 1909, he was disenchanted with his replacement, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt wanted to see a much more progressive country develop along the lines of his speech in Osawatomie. He tried to take the nomination away from Taft in 1912 and when he failed, he launched the Bull Moose Party. Although Roosevelt lost the election to Woodrow Wilson in 1912, he was the only third-party candidate in history to come in second place, as he got more votes than Taft. So, let’s hope Obama’s electoral future turns out to be different than that of Roosevelt after his Osawatomie speech.  But Roosevelt crystallized the progressive movement that had been going on for years before his speech and he is generally considered to be one of our finest Presidents; that is why his image has been chiseled into Mount Rushmore. You can read more about Roosevelt’s progressive nationalism proposal here.

RFM